Two immortals Temple

Two immortals Temple

Located in Zhenze, Wuwen, Henan Province, the two immortals temple was first built in the first year of Zhenguan (627).

General situation and legend

Erxiangu belief began in Han Dynasty, and erxianmiao was founded in 627, the first year of Zhenguan in Tang Dynasty. It has been listed as a key cultural relic protection unit of county and province. The two immortals temple is divided into main courtyard and east-west courtyard. There are more than 70 pavilions and rooms. On the central axis, there are Mountain Gate, Guoting, Wulou, etc.; on the East axis, there are Baogong hall, Guandi hall, Baiyin granny hall, etc.; on the West axis, there are fire god hall, Chenghuang hall, etc. Above the gate is a five character dragon plaque inscribed by Wu Youliang, vice president of the Provincial Academy of calligraphy and painting for the elderly. The main temple of the two immortals temple is Zhenze hall dedicated to the two immortals. On the top right of the gate of Zhenze hall is a plaque awarded by Jiaozuo Municipal Bureau of nationalities and religions in January 2008, which reads: "2007 standardized management of religious activity sites". As Zhang Baoyu, a member of the two immortals temple, said, this plaque means that the two immortals temple is a formal place for religious activities, not a place for superstitious activities (of course, religion and superstition are not completely separated). On the left and right sides of Zhenze hall, there is a rebuilt stele on March 15, the fifth leap year of Kangxi reign, written by Wang Huahe, a scholar of the Imperial Academy.

Erxiangu was originally from lejiazhuang, Lingchuan County, Shanxi Province in the Han Dynasty. Their mother's surname was Yang, and she was inspired to give birth to the two sisters. They are intelligent and beautiful, but they don't speak until they are seven years old. At this time, her mother had passed away, and her stepmother Li abused her sisters in every way: the severe winter forced them to go barefoot and go to the field to pick mushrooms, but the two sisters hugged each other and cried in the field. When the passing gods heard the cry, they felt pity and turned their tears on the ground into red mushrooms. In the heat, the cruel stepmother forced her two daughters to pick up the wheat in the field, and the God pitied them so that they could easily pick up the wheat and go home without suffering from the high temperature. When the stepmother's two plans failed, she set fire late at night in an attempt to get rid of the trouble. At last, the stepmother's behavior was not tolerated by the emperor. The Jade Emperor sent Huang Yun to her sister Xishan to practice. At this time, her sister was only 15 years old and her sister was about 12 years old.

After the two sisters became immortals, the Jade Emperor asked them to land on the rooftop. The queen mother gave them Yuchi wine, and Daozu gave them a golden bowl to travel around the world and protect the peace of life. Once passing by the junction of Wuzhi and Wenxian County, I couldn't help praising: "geomantic treasure land, charming scene!" but I learned that the Supreme Lord Laojun had taken a fancy to this place and buried a piece of his amulet in the ground as a sign. Two people have a plan to bury an embroidered shoe under the order of Lao Jun and seize the place. In this place, they showed their spirit and kindness to the people, and they responded to their requests. In order to repay their kindness, the people here built temples and set up furnaces to offer sacrifices.

At that time, the king of the Tang Dynasty personally led his troops to Korea. When he passed by this place, he ran out of food and grass. The second fairy sent food to the king of the Tang Dynasty's army. Although the urn was small, the food was inexhaustible, which solved the army's hunger. Later, when the Tang army was fighting with the enemy, the hail suddenly fell, and more than half of the enemy was killed. But the Tang army turned defeat into victory without using an arrow. In order to show his gratitude to the two immortals, the king of Tang set up a case to add them as "two immortals Bodhisattvas", abandoned the ancestral temple, built a temple and gave the temple the title of "Zhenze".

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Xixia was covetous and attempted to annex the Central Plains. Er Xiangu disguised herself and sold rice in the song army's war of defending the country. She also helped the song army defeat Xixia army in front of the Xiansheng army. In the third year of the Song Dynasty, there was a severe drought. In early autumn and July, Li Yuanru, the county magistrate, heard that the two immortals in the Ersheng temple had boundless power, so he prayed for drought and rain in the Zhenze temple. Sincere feeling, heavy rain, this year's autumn harvest. This miracle was played by the county magistrate step by step, reporting the details to the court. Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, was deeply moved by the merits of the two immortals. He was loyal to the country and benefitted the people for many times. In the second year, that is, the summer of Zhenghe Xinmao year, he was granted the title of Er Zhenren. He said "Chong Hui" for a long time and "Chong Shu" for a second time, and ordered to protect and build his temple, which has been revered till now.

Overview of temple fair activities

During the cultural revolution, the temple fair of Erxian temple was once interrupted. In the mid-1980s, the temple fair gradually resumed. Since 2000, Erxian temple was listed as a Taoist religious place, and the temple fair became prosperous. The traditional temple fair of Erxian temple is once a month. However, with the development of society and the change of people's life style, there are only three large temple fairs left today, namely, the eighth day of the first month, the fifteenth day of February and the fifteenth day of March. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, it is a sacrifice to the God of fire. The reason why the temple fairs offering sacrifices to the two immortals can be divided into February 15 and March 15, and February 15 is more important is that when the two immortals assisted the king of the Tang Dynasty, their younger sister first came to the army to give help, so February 15, the birthday of their younger sister, was the preferred date for the temple fairs.

Although the main temple fairs today are February 15 and March 15, in fact, pilgrims from Shanxi Province come two days before the temple fairs and continue to offer incense and worship until February 15 and March 15 reach their climax. On February 15, the two immortals temple was full of people from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Most of the visitors to Erxian temple are pilgrims, and few of them are simply for sightseeing. Most pilgrims have offerings, and some kowtow in front of God without offerings. Most of the pilgrims come from rural areas, and some of them live in county and urban areas. Most of them are retirees, and most of them are middle-aged and elderly women. After the temple fair, there are traces of burning incense and paper on the rebuilt steles on both sides of Zhenze Hall of Erxian temple.

The main activities of pilgrim worship include:

（1） Buy Incense

Incense usually includes incense, burning paper, Yuanbao, etc. During the temple fair, there has been a stall in kundao in front of the mountain gate, and the same incense will be 1 / 3 more expensive than usual. The Pilgrims who buy kundao incense at a high price think that the incense in the temple is more effective. Most of the local people in Wuwen bring or buy the incense from vendors. Shanxi pilgrims who come from afar mostly buy kundao incense. Less than one third of the pilgrims bring their own incense.

（2） Offering a confession

Zhenze hall is the most important place for Taoist and pilgrims to worship gods. Therefore, offering is the most important. Before pilgrims arrive, there are people in the hall who are responsible for arranging the offering. There were 6 rows of offerings, 5 bowls in each row and 3 offerings in each bowl. The first line of the offering is the round steamed bread with red dots, which symbolizes good luck and success; the second line is the rectangular sesame candy, which symbolizes no rules, no square and orderly work; the third line is the meat and vegetables, which means that everything is going well for the people and Cathay is safe; the fourth line is the fruits, such as apples and bananas, which symbolizes peace and happiness, prosperity and wealth; the fifth line is the fried coke Flowers show the people's gratitude for the satisfaction of their wishes made in front of Er Xiangu; the sixth line is candy, which means the sweetness of life. These six lines are the psychological sustenance of the people.

（3） Burning incense

A neat stack of burning paper is not conducive to burning. It should be twisted to form the best shape of lotus. The gold and silver ingots are usually stacked together. You need to blow your breath to spread them in the censer, light incense, and then recite or meditate in front of the statue. Some pilgrims have to pay homage to all directions, and then insert incense into the censer. Some pilgrims ask Taoist priest song in front of the incense stand to see if the incense is well burned.

（4） Tie the cloth

At the end of the worship, most pilgrims tied red strips to "sister cypress". Sister cypress is located in the right front of Zhenze hall. This cypress is a tree with three trunks. Originally, it was two trunks, representing the two sisters. Later, it issued another trunk, representing the uncle of the two immortals. It is said that when the two immortals were suffering, their uncle tried his best to protect and rescue them. When they became immortals, they also turned their uncle into immortals. However, people still call this tree sister cypress, and think it is the most divine one among all the trees in this temple. If you tie a cloth on it, you can meet all the demands. According to the inquiry, the sister cypress we see now was planted when the temple was rebuilt in 1994. It continues the legend and psychological sustenance of the people.

The reasons for the continuation of temple fair

（1） The role of human beings

1. The role of pilgrims. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, human needs can be divided into five levels: physiological needs, security needs, belonging and love needs, respect and self-esteem needs, and self realization needs. Because of the lack of a certain need, there will be a certain behavior. For example, the belief in "Dragon King" is the desire for water under the stimulation of physiological needs. According to the data, most of the people who believed in Er Xian Gu from the Han Dynasty were the lower class laboring people. Due to the lack of food and clothing and other needs of different levels, they yearned for a better life, which led to the emergence of pilgrims. Folk beliefs are all for utilitarian purposes. As long as they can meet personal needs, meet personal interests or local interests of the living community, individuals will have faith in them. Out of this mentality, there will be more and more people to join the team of this belief, and the number of pilgrims will continue to grow.

2. The role of non pilgrims. At first, most of the members of the temple fair were pilgrims, but after years of change, the proportion of pilgrims in Erxian Temple gradually decreased, and the composition of the members tended to be complex. Temple fair from the first pure belief ceremony, to achieve the purpose of pleasing God, to the present temple fair with the performance and ornamental elements. In addition to pilgrims, there are many non pilgrims, such as tourists, businessmen, managers and so on. This has played a significant role in the existence and continuation of the comprehensive folk traditional auspicious cultural activities with folk beliefs as the main content.

（2） Economic reasons